About Barbara Kasten

Contemporary photographer Barbara Kasten creates abstract interior environments where the interplay of assembled light, objects, and mirrors forms the illusory subject of her images. Kasten's education in sculpture and painting informs her work; both are mediums she feels are more dominant than photography, which only documents the assemblages that ultimately define her work. Using materials such as glass, mirrors, Plexiglas, and mesh, Kasten constructs large-scale sets that rely on shadow, light, and reflection to transform their interiors into abstract, geometric compositions. The result is a distorted sense of scale and perspective, and a sculptural quality likened to Constructivism. Kasten cites László Maholoy-Nagy, of early Modernist photography and the Bauhaus, along with James Turrrell and Robert Irwin of the Light and Space movement, as defining influences.

American, b. 1936, Chicago, Illinois, based in Chicago, IL, United States